black…MYstory

Has Michael Steele bumped his head?  In a strategic move (insert sarcasm here) that is sure to elicit many an eye-roll from Black and Latino voters, the new chairman of the Republican National Committee is planning a “hip hop makeover” for the GOP.

This is part of the party’s effort to get young Blacks and Latinos to join the Republican ranks.  Steele says “There was underlying concerns we had become too regionalized and the party needed to reach beyond our comfort zones…We need messengers to really capture that region - young, Hispanic, black, a cross section … We want to convey that the modern-day GOP looks like the conservative party that stands on principles. But we want to apply them to urban-surburban hip-hop settings.”

However, the problem, Chairman Steele, is not how the message is conveyed.  The problem is the message itself.  For too long, the Republican party, in playing to its base, has been too willing to throw black people, en masse, under the bus.  Whether they were accusing us of being  just welfare cases or assuming that any position of  importance we received was at the expense of a more qualifed white person, the GOP has played on racism for political gain. Chairman Steele, people are not that blind and their memories are not that short — your party has issues.

Having the right beat can get your song on the charts but, I doubt that a hot beat is going to be enough to salvage the party’s reputation with people of color.  Michael Steele, you have your work cut out for you.  If this is your best idea, I say go back to the lab and don’t come out until you get a better one or, since you’re so into hip hop, here’s a few bars from Eminem when he battled in 8 Mile:

Matter fact, dog, here’s a pencil /
Go home, write some s**t, make it suspenseful, /
And don’t come back until something don’t hits you/
f**k it! You can take the mike home with you!/

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